This is a conference of small delegate committees (each one representing a different country) who discussed different world problems and wrote resolutions in order to support to the solving of these problems. The students participated in three different committees: the African Union discussing the building of the Great Green Wall in Africa, the UNHCR (UN Refugee Agency) discussing the problem of Climate Refugees and the UNESCAP discussing Extreme Weather Events.

On Saturday, the Conference started with an opening ceremony in the which the participants were able to listen to the speakers Gilles Amadou, Summer Chen, Vanessa Pirotta and Janica Leong, who talked about the leading issues of climate change. Then the delegates proceeded to join each of their committees and started proposing “motions“ to be allowed to raise a point of concern or to mention a topic that they would like to discuss. In the afternoon, after we had finished our two sessions of the day, we were offered a networking session, in the which we were able to connect more personally with the different members of the committees, a very interesting opportunity as each committee had members from different continents. The next and last day of the conference, the delegates formed small groups of participants according to countries which had the most similar points of view to the issue, and wrote resolutions: documents stating problems, ideas and suggestions to solve the issue discussed. Then the different resolutions were discussed in the committees and there was voting to see if the resolution could be passed or not. To finish the conference, there was a Closing Ceremony which included speeches from Kim Solomon and Joshua Amponsen and thank you words from the organisers, as well as the conferring of awards to delegates who had done an outstanding work for the past weekend.

As a consequence of COVID-19, we joined the online conference, and we delegates had to connect online in our committees and were not able to debate in person. Many students found this a negative consequence because they felt like they were not really in an MUN atmosphere and therefore didn’t feel like they were able to involve themselves in their committee as much as they had wanted to; on the other side, some students found it a positive consequence, stating that with an online conference, they were more relaxed and were able to work better than if they were there in person. Generally, the students did find it a shame not to be able to meet all the delegates in person and meet different people from completely different backgrounds and nationalities. Nevertheless, this didn’t stop Lennart Mühlhäuser from receiving an Honourable Mention from the secretaries of his committee and the student Leo Lind from receiving the award of Best Delegate and Liam Longerich from receiving the Diplomatic Commendation Award in each of their committees, congratulations!

Overall, it was a successful conference for all the SIC students that participated and a special thank you to the teachers Andreas Jäger and Sabine Jasny for making this conference possible to the students and being of much help along the weekend.

Belen Suarez Bordils, IB1